Hello,
Read some of the previous threads re finding work in Spain. Just looking for any advice on finding my first teaching job in Barcelona (planning to gain experience, learn some Spanish before hopefully going to travel/teach in South America in 12 months time).
I'm based in UK, after 20 years in business environment and a year travelling, recently completing Masters degree in Journalism.
Although not possessing Celta/Trinity, but did 130 hour online TEFL course (appreciate this is not viewed very favourably) & recently spent 5 weeks in Spanish Summer Camp Programmes (Pueblo Ingles & Berlitz),
Have been to Barcelona in April (obviously, not the best time for jobs) handing out CV/visiting various schools, and had Lingobongo distribute my CV twice to all 200 plus institutions, but had no responses.
I appreciate the extreme economic difficulties existing presently in Spain, but am in Barcelona next week to go around the various institutions again
Prefer Barcelona but understand that there are more jobs in Madrid, (speaking with Bertlitz teachers). Plan to possibly try and gain CELTA in Barcelona to enhance employability.
Apologise that this is a bit general but any advice greatly appreciated.

My 26 year old son has lived in Barca. for over year and earns around 1500 euros per month.He is very lucky to be living with his Spanish girlfriend who has a flat there,just 20 mins walk from where he works.Un fortunately he is not in ESL teaching so I can't advise you on that score, but as a graduate works for a French firm which does various projects in E.U. countries.Even so he complains that his salary is not enough and that life there is expensive etc!But he also knows that he is very lucky just have a job there,even more so with this kind of salary and hears how things are getting very tough for many people workwise.......part of the problem is that the city is very popular with foreigners as well year round and rents are expensive too,with any ESL jobs being much sort after,even more so nowadays.If you really want to go to Spain I would seriously consider widening your choice of location-as you correctly said,Madrid has more vacancies and is not necessarily more expensive to live in either.

Celta probably does enhance your prospects, in the eyes of most DoS's in Spain. There are a lot of people who will have it and it's a competitive market.

Not sure that anyone can actually point to any evidence that it's easier to find jobs in Madrid than Barcelona.

Best time to be here, probably mid September and hope to be receiving a first pay cheque at the end of October, so come with financial reserves (classes in most language schools starting first week of October, with teachers being taken on quite late, including into October).

My son has been living there nearly three years, and very fortunately has a free flat with his local girlfriend. Admittedly he's not involved in teaching but tells me that the place is awash with prospective EFL teachers(as well as a myriad of other people looking for work in all sorts of fields!).Despite this and no doubt because of the year-round popularity of the place with tourists from all corners of the globe, prices are high for most essentials, including accommodation and this means that those on low incomes, who are many, are struggling. The same applies to the coastal resorts along the Costa Brava which are packed at this time of the year, despite the recession etc. His best advice is to try to estimate how much money you will need to survive on until you find work etc, and then add 50% to it!!!!
Yet despite all these drawbacks so many people still seem to want to go there, rather than other parts of Spain where costs are lower and could also gain a more genuine experience of life in Spain?

-as Laura, my sons g.f constantly says! It is very cosmopolitan though, full of tourists and although also undoubtedly interesting for a visitor.... whether living there would be typical of Spanish life is debatable. There are smaller towns nearby which sometimes advertise jobs and are still within striking distance for days off etc. Of course some of them are non-descript, boring and even ugly so doing a bit of homework first and even visiting before making a decision are the best way to avoid this?
Another thing which surprises some people who go there unaware is how cold it can sometimes be in the north of Spain in winter and this needs to be borne in mind for those expecting to sunbathe an swim in the sea year round!

Not sure that you can say that living somewhere else rather than in Barcelona or Madrid is "a more genuine experience of life in Spain".

Living in Barcelona is NOT a "genuine experience of life in Spain" ????

I guess the answer to that depends on what you want. If it's immersion then Barcelona and Madrid are probably not the best places. Regarding Madrid, I would say that in common with most other European capital cities, it doesn't offer the same experience of the country as other parts. More immigrants, more cosmopolitan, higher costs and you're far more likely to hear English spoken there, including in the tourist and hospitality industry and to hang out in circles with other foreigners.

Barcelona very similar but with added disadvantages. I've tried looking there myself, it seemed to be awash with tourists the whole year round, had a higher level of petty crime and also there is the Catalan thing both in terms of language and culture.

All these observations apply to some degree to Valencia, Seville and Bilbao. Against that though, the big two are better places for teaching things like Business English, which can mean less young learners, who are not everyone's cup of tea.

Maruss' point about the weather is a valid one too. Even in Valencia, which has better weather than Barcelona, there was a five or six week period from around 20 January on when it was quite unpleasant. The days were usually still sunny with temperatures in the 16-22 degree range but the temperature dropped at night to close to between zero and five degrees and like many flats there, ours had no central heating. We had to borrow a little electric heater and sit around like pensioners in the evenings wrapped up in multiple layers.

I'm not saying that all those cities are not great places to live. They are, but people need to be sure of what they want before going there.

Best time to be here, probably mid September and hope to be receiving a first pay cheque at the end of October, so come with financial reserves (classes in most language schools starting first week of October, with teachers being taken on quite late, including into October).

Seems that most schools start gathering resumes for positions now and trying to determine how many teachers they need before interviewing candidates. Most of the responses I have received (started applying yesterday) have implied that they haven't made those decisions yet. Either that or that's their subtle way of turning me down.

I'm just trying to get a feel on what the more appealing job markets are outside of Madrid and Barcelona before making my next move.

SirKirby wrote:

Also to be noted: while the cost of living in other parts of Spain maybe lower, so are wages (significantly so in ELT).

Not sure that you can say that living somewhere else rather than in Barcelona or Madrid is "a more genuine experience of life in Spain".

Living in Barcelona is NOT a "genuine experience of life in Spain" ????

I think what the poster might be saying is that you can get by easily in Barcelona or Madrid just speaking English and make no effort to understand the culture due to how cosmopolitan they are. I've been in Barcelona for a bit over a month and every time I try to speak Spanish, I get responses in English. What's the point of even trying to speak Spanish when everybody I come into contact with speaks English back to me?